Does anyone here have experience with types of wine (see details)

Yellow Tail isn’t too bad, their Shiraz has kind of fallen off a little bit but their Merlot is still pretty good. Little penguin is another one I like. Greg Norman wines are always nice, only 14 bucks a bottle too ;).

if you like something sweeter, Chateau St. Michelle Reisling is a surprisingly nice white/desert wine.

My favorite Chardonnay is Toasted Head. Fat Bastard (yeah I know) is pretty good too.

A great 20 dollar bottle is Mercury Rising – Cinnaba, which is a red wine, goes great with meat.

hope it helps

all of them are priced between 7 and 20 dollars by the way :).

Ravenswood Teldeschi Zinfandel
or this one is really good
Biale Black Chicken Zinfandel

A good Rose, I don’t know how to do that tilde thing between the ‘s’ and ‘e’ . A Beaujolais Neuveau-I massacred that too-oh well, first can be subtlety sweet the other a fresh dark red.

Buy the cheapest wine you can find and you will not notice the difference compared with a $30 bottle.

I usually aim for wines in the $2—$4 range.

Pay more than that and you’re paying for a nice label.

@thanatos I’ve had cheap wine, Boonesfarm comes to mind. I’ve had good medium priced wines and cheap wines. There is a difference. I want a wine that complements the food, I am not concerned about getting shit faced.

Ok, a good white for pheasant, quail or fowl can be a WA Reiseling, such as Chateau Ste. Michelle and its made in the USA.

With red meats any good label French variety of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc or Merlot. These are all from the Bordeaux region of France although many are now produced domestically. Dessert wines are sweet such as Port and also the Riesling as mentioned above, but none of these are good with red meats. Go with a Cabernet or Merlot for the crowd and pick yourself up a six pack.

@SeventhSense I don’t do six packs, if you mean beer. I only use mass produced beer to kill slugs in my garden. I won’t drink anything slugs will drown in, so when I drink beer, it’s Bent River all the way, baby!

Life is too short to drink cheap beer.

Well, for $30 you could actually get TWO bottles of pretty good wine. Wine has kind of a reputation for being expensive, but most of the bottles you’d buy for normal events like dinner or parties are usually around $10 to $20. The vast majority of bottles you’ll find in a wine store will probably be somewhere around this range, unless they’re really, really special (and picking out an expensive wine without knowing what you’re looking for could be a big gamble.)

It’s probably a huge pain in the ass to hunt down specific bottles, and anyway it’s more fun to try something new and unexpected. If you have a wine shop in your area, going there and chatting with the salespeople about what you want would be awesome- they’ll be able to answer your question right away.

Anyway, you should try to experiment with more than one type of wine if you can, maybe spending $10— $15 a bottle. You said you have a sweet tooth and want a wine that isn’t bitter, so you’ll probably like Merlot, which is sort of soft or plush feeling in the mouth. You might also like Zinfandel, because it’s really fruity and rich. (I don’t mean white Zinfandel- I’m talking about the red wine here.)

You should also try other types for contrast, if you can. Wines like Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz might taste a little “manlier,” but they go great with red meat because the acid in the wine contrasts with the fat in the food. It’s hard to buy wines from France because they’re usually labeled by where they are made rather than what type of wine they are. So you can’t just instantly look at the bottle and know what you’re getting. Wines from the new world are awesome and they’re often cheaper. I’d recommend trying California, Australia, or Argentina. Shiraz from Australia is really well-known, and so are Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec from Argentina.

@evelyns_pet_zebra Bent River beers seems great.

I’d reccomend a Beaujolais, it’s got low tannins (less ‘bitter’) you can pick them up relatively inexpensively

Try also a Chianti Classico… (look for one with a black rooster on the pink tape, they’re from the Gallo Nero Consortium and I like them best) they go VERY well with all types of grilled foods

we just went to a few vineyards this weekend for wine tasting and I was surprised that they recommended an oaked Chardonnay to go with grilled meat as well, but then I thought about it and it made sense to me, a nice toasty oaky chadonnay can hold up to the flavor of grilled meats (where something aged in stainless steel would ‘disappear’ in the strong flavors)

stay away from sweet red wines, unless you plan on making sangria out of it. they just don’t go well with meat “as is”

I’d go with a Malbec from Argentina or Chile. A lot of Cabernets, Chiatis, etc. are heavier and not as fruity. Malbecs are great with all sorts of grilled red meats. And you can probably get 2 nice bottles for about that price instead of 1 or none. Also, I haven’t had a bad Malbec yet, and Cabernets seem to vary more broadly from the very very good to yuck. (Maybe I’ve just been lucky, and maybe it’s that there aren’t as many malbecs on the scene yet.) And I wouldn’t go any ‘sweeter’ with red meat.

Your local booze store probably does free wine tastings. My suggestion—since no one else is you—is to go partake in one or two of them, find a wine you like, and buy it. Depending on where you live, you could also go to the tasting room of a local vineyard. Again, taste a few wines, buy what you like. The people pouring should be able to direct you to something that will pair well with whatever you are having.

Lastly, if your event isn’t for a while AND you live in a shipping-friendly state, you might want to keep an eye on wine.woot.com. (This requires you to be planning at least 2 months in advance assuming the very next offer is one you like. It sometimes takes them a while to ship and it would be terrible for you to miss out.) The nice thing about wine.woot is that the winemakers usually join the discussion of the booze at hand and they almost always talk about pairings, serving suggestions, etc. (And if they don’t, you can ask.)

I agree with EmpressPixie that tasting is a good idea. But if you aren’t very experienced it can be hard to imagine pairings without trying things together. Once you get used to tasting that’s easier to do. So, if there’s a way to taste with food that’s the way to go.

Great answers all around, folks!
(except for you, boobs! there’s no excuse for drinking yellowtail; better wines can be had at the same price, and a Riesling isn’t a dessert wine)

To answer the question, with grilled red meats one wants a wine with some tannins (tannin is a chemical reaction in the mouth, not a flavour) because it will cut through and balance with the fat. Cabernet Sauvignon is a nice choice, but you’re never going to find one that I’d describe as “sweet”. You will find ones that I’d describe as “juicy”.
(So many people make the mistake between these two descriptors, but that’s for another class)
Since it’s a Halloween Party and I know you to be a festive sort, I’m going to suggest Evil (R Wines) Cabernet Sauvignon. Dan’s a great importer and I met Chris (the winemaker) at a tasting last year and he seems to really know his stuff.
It’s fruity, (cassis and black fruits) with some subtle spicy undertones and smooth, easy tannins.

Thunderbird, trust me!

@cyndyh: right on with the Malbec from Chile, best bang for your buck.

@breedmitch, its out of stock, so maybe next year. Thanks for the link, though.

@Garebo : It’s always really worked for me. :^>

@cyndyh: myself as well, my friend turned me on to Chilean wines when they were unbelievably cheap, but still good. Not quite the price advantage anymore, but I do know their reds are doing very well and now in great acclaim. Part of the reason I would want to move there.

They’re still a real bargain where I am. I guess I should stock up then, eh?

Okay, I drink good stuff, because my sister lives on a winery.
If I am buying cheap wine, I go with Riunite. It’s quite good, though it turns my tongue purple.